Healthy eating basics

Create a weekly menu plan for weeknight dinner meals. Meal planners are available through some supermarket websites/apps (see below) and other websites such as Love Food Hate Waste(external link) and New Zealand  Apps such as Nourish App, and Appetise. Some internet sites can help you choose recipes based on ingredients you already have or plan to have available for meals. 

Write a shopping list or create one online using the supermarket website or apps available at Woolworths and New World to get your groceries online. By using online shopping lists you can save your supermarket choices and use them in future orders. Choosing some of the same meals, snacks, and essential ingredients helps with decision making around meals and reduces planning time. It can also reduce impulse buying and purchasing of food you don't really need.

Plan regular meals and some snacks throughout the day along with regular water/low calorie fluids (eg, water, tea, low fat milk). The amount of food you need to eat will vary depending on a variety of factors such as your level of activity, age, height, weight and health needs. Regular meals and water/low calorie fluid help to manage your hunger, help with concentration, mood, regular bowel movement and give you energy for physical activity.

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Eat balanced main meals from the 4 main food groups. Include some higher fibre carbohydrate foods, some protein rich foods and some vegetables and/or fruit and calcium rich foods.

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Snacks

Include nutritious snacks based on your level of hunger and what foods make up your main meals. If your main meals don’t include fruit or vegetables, then include a serve of these as a snack. Other options include a calcium and protein rich food and/or wholegrain crackers or a small handful of nuts and seeds. Read more about food swaps for better health.

Snacks can be high in sugar, salt and fat depending on the item, so use the health star rating to select lower salt/sugar/fat packaged foods. Read more about using the health star rating(external link). You can also read food labels by taking a closer look at the nutrition information panel, read more about how to use food labels. 

Lunch and dinner

The healthy plate model(external link) is a useful guide for lunch and dinner meals which often include meat, vegetables and carbohydrate foods. It provides guidance on portion sizes. Another useful resource is KAI-ORA food for health.

Social settings

Other people’s food choices can influence our own in a positive or negative way. Sharing a meal with others can promote positive relationships, reduce feelings of loneliness, lift our mood and enhance our wellbeing. When eating with others, make a conscious decision about what type of food and drink you would like to eat before sharing a meal with them. Where possible, serve your own meal to help with portion control. Alternatively, bring your own meal/snacks/drinks to consume if sharing a meal isn't an option. This helps you to make more conscious choices that meet your health needs. Here are some healthy recipes for special occasions.

Environment

Apart from social eating, other environmental factors can also play a role in how much we eat. For example, when you watch or read something on a device while eating, you can unconsciously consume more as a result of being distracted. The same thing happens when you eat and drive your car. It takes approximately 20 minutes for your brain to receive messages from your stomach that you're full, so eating slowly and without unhelpful distractions can promote healthier eating behaviours.

Tiredness

When you're tired, you're likely to eat more and making poorer food choices. Read more about sleep and diet, the importance of sleep and how food affects mood.

Thirst

If you're not well hydrated, you can sometimes think you're hungry when you're actually thirsty. Drinking water regularly throughout the day, such as with meals and in between meals, can also help to regulate your appetite. This means you're less likely to overeat by having snacks or large meal portions. Keeping yourself well hydrated and following a balanced diet of regular meals can help you manage your hunger well and prevent over or under-eating.

Activity

Regular activity is important for your well-being and it stimulates your appetite. By having regular balanced meals, nutrient rich snacks and staying hydrated, you can manage your appetite well whilst being regularly active.

Taste

Generally speaking, we tend to like foods that are salty, sugary and higher in fat as they're tasty and it's easy to eat too much of them. Many take-away and fast food meals are high in fat, salt, and kilojoules (food energy) with some also providing low amounts of vegetables.

For this reason it's best to limit take-away meals to once a month. Many snacks such as chips, biscuits, bakery items and confectionery (sweets) are also salty, sugary and high fat and kilojoules. Use the label reading resources to help you make healthier choices, and consider making a rule around limiting the availability of high fat, salt and sugar foods in your home or workplace so you're less likely to reach for them. Have healthy snack options easily available instead. 

Although fats are not a recommended food group as such, we all need some fat in our diet. It's a macronutrient needed for energy, building healthy cells, helping us to absorb some vitamins and antioxidants, and as a source of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. We can get enough fat from healthy food sources (eg, fish, avocado, nuts, olive oil) without needing to add extra fat from less healthy sources found in processed or packaged food items such as fatty deep fried chips, pies, processed meat, store bought cakes and pastries. When it comes to cooking, use olive oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil or rice bran oil instead of coconut oil, palm oil, butter or ghee.

Also, take visible fat off meat and remove the skin from poultry before cooking. Read more about fats and oils.

Fatty foods are high in kilojoules so it can be easy to take in more than you need, leading to weight gain. It’s best to focus on the type and amount of fat you eat. The best sources of fat come from whole foods such as nuts, seeds, avocado, olives and oily fish.

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Sugary drinks

Sugary drinks such as fruit juice, fizzy drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks and flavoured water all provide kilojoules in the form of sugar. The sugar in these beverages can be bad for your teeth and can contribute to weight gain or make it difficult to lose weight if consumed regularly. Diet or zero sugar varieties of fizzy drinks might be free from sugar, providing no or very few kilojoules, but they still provide a sweet taste making them easy to consume regularly. They are also acidic which can have a negative impact on dental health.

What is best for me to drink?

Water is best, you can add a squeeze of lemon/lime/orange to add flavour. Unflavoured lower fat milk is also a good choice for its nutritional value. If you want to drink juice, you could dilute it with 50% water. Drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners or natural sweeteners such as stevia often provide little or no kilojoules and so are a suitable alternative. However, they still provide a sweet taste which can make you want more. Herbal teas can be enjoyed hot or cold and are a good choice for many people.

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Caffeinated drinks such as tea and coffee are an enjoyable choice of drink for many adults, particularly when in the company of others. Caffeine is added to cola and energy drinks which are sweet and easy to drink to much of. The Food Standards Code restricts the amount of caffeine added to these drinks, but it's up to you to moderate how many drinks you have.

Apart from breastfeeding women and children, a caffeine intake of up to 400 mg per day is considered safe for adults. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it can have positive and negative effects ranging from temporarily improving your concentration, to increasing your heart rate, feelings of anxiousness and problems sleeping. Read more about caffeine and how to enjoy it safely.

Alcohol provides kilojoules and most options provide no other nutritional value. Many New Zealanders enjoy drinking alcohol socially, however it can have serious harmful short-term and long-term effects on your health if not consumed in moderation and sensibly. Women should drink no more than two standard drinks per day and no more than 10 standard drinks a week, men should drink no more than three standard drinks a day and no more than 15 standard drinks a week. Read more about the benefits of drinking less and the harmful effects of alcohol.

A well-planned diet that avoids meat or other animal products can be healthy, but you need to make sure that your diet is meeting all your nutritional needs. Read more about being vegetarian or vegan and about different vegetables and the nutrients they provide(external link).